Father of four admits to lottery scam
A man who tried to claim nearly £200,000 (Irish pounds) from Ladbrokes bookmakers with a forged betting slip based on the numbers of the English lottery has received a five-year suspended sentence from Judge Kevin Haugh at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Frank Duffy, a father of four, originally from St Attracta Road, Cabra placed a IR£1.75 stake at 111,000/1 on picking five numbers from the English lottery and left the top line of the slip blank. The bookmakers retained the front copy of the betting slip.
The night he made the bet, the bookmakers was burgled and, as well as a sum of cash, all the betting slip copies were stolen from the safe, as was microfiche film of the winning bets.
Duffy made an anonymous claim the following month through a local solicitor's firm for the winnings which totalled IR£199,447. The security manager became suspicious of the bet and informed the gardai who were able to trace the bet back to Duffy through his solicitors.
Duffy (aged 38), pleaded guilty to attempting to obtain money from Ladbrokes on Dowth Road, on January 5, 2000 by falsely pretending he had a valid ticket.
He has 20 previous convictions, mainly for road traffic offences in his youth and had one for forgery. All were dealt with summarily in the District Court.
Judge Haugh said that, although no one was ever charged with the burglary, he could not believe that Duffy did not know Ladbrokes would have difficulties in identifying the fraud but because of his severe bad health he could see no benefit in sending him to prison.
He said: "He must have known there had been a burglary. He must have been working in cahoots with someone else who had knowledge of the premises and perpetrated the burglary.
"It was a sophisticated and audacious plan and there is no coincidence that he sought to defraud Ladbrokes by forging a betting slip on the same day that their checking mechanisms had been interfered with. This makes matters very serious."
Judge Haugh said he took into account that Duffy pleaded guilty, even if the evidence against him was very strong, and because of his failing health.
"I can't see any good being served by sending him to prison but I still have to discourage him from getting involved in anything like this again", he added.
Det Gda O'Meara told Mr Remy Farrell BL, prosecuting, that Duffy made the bet on December 4, 1999 but was able to fill in the top line of the slip after watching the English lotto numbers being drawn that evening.
That night all the winning betting slips and the computerised camera system that recorded them, as well as a sum of money, was stolen in a burglary at Ladbrokes. This way the bookmakers had no record of winning slips and would not be able to verify if Duffy's claim was legitimate or not.
The solicitor's firm made a claim for the money on behalf of an unidentified third party and Det Gda O'Meara said he was contacted by the Ladbrokes security manager, Mr Alan Casey, who had become suspicious about the legitimacy of the claim.
Det Gda O'Meara said Duffy was interviewed on February 23, 2000 and made a statement supporting his claim for the money.
The betting slip was sent to hand-writing experts in the Garda Technical Bureau and they discovered that a different pen was used and that the ticket was forged.
Det Gda O'Meara told Ms Mary Ellen Ring SC (with Mr Sean Gillane BL), for Duffy, that whoever carried-out the burglary would have had knowledge of the premises but her client was never charged in relation to it.
Ms Ring added that almost all of Duffy's convictions were at a much earlier stage of his life and a lot involved road traffic matters. For the past 10 years he had suffered ill health and could not work anymore.
She submitted to Judge Haugh that Duffy had to be given credit for his plea of guilty because it saved a number of witnesses from travelling from Spain for a complex trial. The money was also never paid out and thus Ladbrokes were not at a loss.
